The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touch pads and touch screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to manipulate user interface objects on a display, such as objects that correspond to digital content (e.g., music and videos).
Exemplary manipulations include navigating, viewing, selecting, and playing content items in a video and music player (e.g., iPod from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.). But existing methods for navigating through and previewing content items are cumbersome and inefficient. Previewing can become tedious and create a significant cognitive burden on a user. In addition, existing methods take longer than necessary, thereby wasting energy. This latter consideration is particularly important in battery-operated devices.